Tag Archives: fall

The long baseball season is nearing its end. The summer is coming to an end and the Fall season is about to start. With it will come the Major League Baseball Playoffs. The first games of the playoffs start next weekend. So let’s take a look at what teams are approaching the playoffs in this final week of the season.

The American League

The interesting note of the week is that no A.L. teams have clinched a playoff spot yet. It has been a tight race for all of the divisional spots and especially for the two Wild Card spots.

East

In the East there is great competition between the division leading New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees only lead that division by one game with the Rays in third place by only 5 games.

Central

The Central division has seen the Chicago White Sox fall quite a bit in the past week. The White Sox are trailing the Detroit Tigers in the division by one game. The third place team in the division is held by the Kansas City Royals who are fourteen games behind and have no hope for the playoffs.

West

The Western division has just as tight of a race as the Eastern division. The Texas Rangers hold the top position with a record of 92-65. The Oakland A’s have been surging ahead in the final month of the season and are only three games behind the Rangers. In third place five games behind the Rangers are the Anaheim Angels. The Angels got off to a bad start at the beginning of the season but were able to turn their season around in the summer months.

Wild Card

Only six games separate the top five teams in the Wild Card race. The Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland A’s are in the top spots. The Angels are two games back. The Rays are three games back, while the White Sox are six games back and will likely only be able to enter the playoffs with winning the Central division.

The National League

The almost half of the playoff spots in the N.L. have been claimed. All but one of the divisions have champions already, which takes some of the excitement away.

East

This is the only division where a champion has not yet been crowned. With the third place team the Phillies seventeen games back, its between only the Braves and the Nationals for the crown. The Nationals have shocked the baseball world with an incredible season and they currently hold the top spot. The braves are trailing by four games and still have a chance at winning the division. Both the Nationals and Braves have clinched playoff spots. The only question is which one will be the division champion and which one will be in the wild card position.

Central

The Cincinnati Reds won the division this past week. They appear to be a team that could contend for the World Series Title in October.

West

The San Fransisco Giants won the division championship just a few days ago. This team has been a great team built for the playoffs for a few years now. The Giants won the World Series in 2010 and are looking to win their second in three years.

Wild Card

With the Braves having clinched a playoff birth there is only one wild card spot remaining. The St Louis Cardinals hold the remaining spot at the moment. The Dodgers and the Brewers are the only two teams that still have a chance for the remaining wild card. The Dodgers are three games back while the Brewers are five back. The Dodgers have been turning downward as September rolls along. The Brewers have to win their remaining five games to have a chance. The Cardinals will likely hold their position and go into a wild card playoff game with the Braves.

Week 2 of the College Football is over just in time for the first Sunday of NFL action. There were some great games and performances on Saturday. Let’s take our weekly look at 2centsworthofsports.com’s top 3 stories of NCAA action.

2 Major Teams Debut And Lose In the SEC

Texas A&M and Missouri made their SEC debuts on Saturday. Much was said and predicted about their debuts in one of College Football’s best conference. Both teams played two of the toughest teams in the SEC, the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs respectively. A&M hosted the number 24th ranked Florida Gators at home and played the Gators in a nail biter. The game was close the entire time and came down to a winning TD for Florida to take the game. The final score was 20-17 for UF over Texas A&M. In Missouri there was another great game that was really close until the 4th quarter where the number 7th ranked Bulldogs pulled away from Missouri, scoring 17 points in the last quarter. The final score was 41-20 in favor of UGA. It was a rough day for both debuting teams, they did however show they belong in the powerhouse conference.

Matt Barkley Throws 6 TD’s In Win Over Syracuse

The 2nd ranked team in the country the USC Trojans came into New York to play Syracuse. The game was not as easy of a win that many expected for the Trojans, winning 49-29 on the road and advancing their record to 2-0. Matt Barkley’s performance is the biggest story of this game. Barkley was 23 for 30 passing with 187 yards and 6 touchdowns. Barkley only threw 1 interception the entire game. Barkley has really developed into the player he was expected to be coming out of high school just a couple of years ago. This was a great statement making performance for the USC quarterback.

#13 Wisconsin Falls To Unranked Oregon State

In what was the biggest upset of a ranked team this Saturday, Oregon State defeated Wisconsin. This game was a low scoring affair with the final score of 10-7 in favor of the Beavers. The star of the game for the Beavers was their QB Sean Mannion who had 276 yards passing and 1 touchdown pass. The Wisconsin Badgers really under played themselves in this road game. The Badgers will have to make some adjustments going ahead into the season if they want to remain in the top 25 rankings. The Beavers could likely end up in the top 25 with this win.

After a long spring and summer America’s top sports league is back. The sometimes boring and monotonous training camps of July and August are complete. It is finally time to get the season under way on the greatest day of the week, Sunday.

(Getty Images)

There are many story lines to pay attention to this year. Will the young rookie Andrew Luck and RG3 QB’s shine and have a season the likes of Cam Newton last season? Will Peyton Manning return to his old form with the Broncos after sitting out the entire 2011 season? Can the teams like the 49ers and Texans continue the strong play they had last season? There are many more storylines that will follow as the season rages on through the Fall and into the Winter.

There is something about this season and this time of the year that just makes football fans a little happier. For many of us it bring back memories of growing up watching football with our families. Your home town team that you love so much no matter how horrible they are every year. For others it’s the nostalgia of playing the game while in grade school or high school. Then there are the fantasy football nuts that just can’t wait to show all of their friends how much more they know about the game and managing their own team. Whatever you reason is for getting excited about the upcoming season it a valid one.

Football has been around for many years and will be an American favorite for a lot more to come. It is engrained in our make up as people and as a country. We as Americans love physicality and proving who the better man or better men really are. In every game every Sunday we get to see just that, who is better on this day. So let the gatherings of friends and the barbeques continue into the winter cause football is back.